When I was eight years old, I went to the Crest Theatre on Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles and I saw a movie called The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, a Ray Harryhausen picture with stop-motion monsters. Now, this was suspension of disbelief: I was there, I was in that picture, fighting the cyclops on the beach, running from the dragon! I was enthralled. It's one of my strongest childhood memories.

Since then, there have been thousands of movies that have changed my life, but this was the one that first did it for me. I'm not making claims for it as a great film, but it was one of the most enchanting I've ever seen. You didn't go to this movie to see great acting – the puppets are what stood out. I loved the truth Ray brought to creatures like the two-headed giant bird - unbelievably amazing creations. And they're all handmade. That's not done as much now. At the time I thought: "How the hell was it done?" I went home and I asked my mother who made movies. She answered: "The director", which in retrospect was surprisingly sophisticated of her, as my family was not in the film business. From then on, that was my intention: I was going to be a director.